Sean White Olympics 2010 | USsPost.com

Sean White Olympics 2010 | USsPost.com:After being shut out of winning any medals on Tuesday, Team USA soared back into the 2010 Winter Olympics medal lead in Vancouver, BC. Snowboarder Shawn White captured the Snowboard Half Pipe gold to go along with North Carlina-born Seth Wescott’s on the Team USA Ski and Snowboard team. White and his teammates led five other medal winners as the overall medal count for Team USA increased to 14 (5 G, 3 S, 6 B). Team USA leads all countries with five gold medal winners thus far.

North Carolina notables

Women’s Speed Skating

Speed Skater Heather Richardson (Hickory, NC) finished sixth overall in Monday’s 500 m event and prepares for today’s 1000 m event which she considers as her best. Richardson pointed out that she had her best 500 m finish and was “pleasantly surprised”. Richardson’s teammate on the squad includes Lauren Cholewinski who was born in Pineville, NC and is competing in her first Winter Olympics. According to her Twitter feed (LMCHOLEWINSKI) “”so I didn’t skate quite as fast as I would have liked, but hey it’s my first olympics (not my last) and I’m proud to be an olympian . ” Cholewinski finished 30th in the 500 m event, her lone event of the 2010 Winter Games.

Men’s Ice Hockey

After an impressive first day of Men’s Ice Hockey competition, Carolina Hurricanes fans can be happy and proud of Joni Pitkanen and Tuomo Ruutu as they heped lead Team Finland to a 5-1 win over Team Belarus. In the game, Pitkanen tallied his first Winter Olympics point with an assist as Team Finland peppered Belarussian netminder Vitali Koval with 45 shots of which Ruutu pulled the trigger on five of them. Team Finland prepares for its next game on Friday as it will face Team Germany.

Canes captain Eric Staal and Team Canada will face Team Switzerland Thursday and will focus on maintaining its momentum since beating Team Norway 8-0 on Tuesday. Team Switzerland will provide Canada with a competitive game which may not be expected by most, but they did only lose to Team USA 3-1 in their first Group A game. Team Switzerland beat Team Canada in a 2-0 stunner at the Torino Olympics in 2006 which Staal and team leader Sidney Crosby are fully aware of, and neither expects to experience a repeat of.

Hurricanes defenseman Tim Gleason will continue to provide solid stay-at-home support on the blue line as Team USA takes on Team Norway on Thursday. Though the Norwegians lost 8-0 to Team Canada, they still held the powerful squad to only a 3-0 lead after two periods. This is the game that Team USA needs to spread its offensive wings and show the potential that it possesses for the remainder of Games.